Striping box for circular knitting machines with adjustable fingeractuating jacks

ABSTRACT

FINGER-ACTUATING L-SHAPED JACKS FOR THE TOOTHED DRUM OF A STRIPPING BOX ARE EACH RECESSED TO RECEIVE A SPRING MOUNTED IN AN ANNULAR GROOVE OF THE DRUM SUCH THAT A JACK MAY BE PIVOTED ABOUT THE SPRING TO CAUSE ONE LEG TO PROJECT FROM THE DRUM TEETH ON ONE SIDE OF THE SPRING OR THE OTHER LEG FROM THE DRUM TEETH ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SPRING, AND SUCH THAT A JACK MAY BE MOVED UNDER THE SPRING AND DISPOSED TO RELOCATE A PROJECTING LEG IN A NEW POSITION ON THE ONE SIDE OR THE OTHER OF THE SPRING.

Nov. 16, 1971 MISHCQN ETTAL 3,620,049

STRIPING BOX FOR CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINES WlTh ADJUSTABLEFINGER-ACTUATING JACKS Filed April 9, 1970 3 Sheets-Sheet J.

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INVENTORS Lester Mishcon Donald W. Reagan %/%W %/A WITNESS 75M Mamba, HATTORNEY Nov. 16, 1971 L. MISHCON ETAL 3,620,049

STRIPING BOX FOR CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINES WITH ADJUSTABLEFINGER-ACTUATING JACKS 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed April 9, 1970 n n W m O OA Y '5 E.| vM 0 w mrd w m a mm A RUDE mm A L mm oo- WITNESS 'Ehwre MamieNov. 16, 1971 MISHCON ETAL 3,620,049

STRIPING BOX FOR CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINES WlTh ADJUSTABLEFINGER-ACTUATING JACKS Filed April 9, 1970 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 lNVEN TORSLester Mlshcon BY Donald W. Reagan WITNESSI 44,

United States Patent O STRIPING BOX FOR CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINES WITHADJUSTABLE FINGER- ACTUATING JACKS Lester Mishcon, Miami Beach, andDonald W. Reagan, Hialeah, Fla., assignors to The Singer Company, NewYork, N.Y.

Filed Apr. 9, 1970, Ser. No. 27,014 Int. Cl. D04b 15/58, 15/80 US. Cl.66-138 1 Claim ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATEDAPPLICATIONS The present invention is an improvement on the striper boxconstruction of the copending application of Lester Mishcon and Paul M.Wolford for Striping Box for Knitting Machine, Ser. No. 26,999, filedApr. 9, 1970, which is assigned to the same assignee as the inventiondescribed herein.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION (1) Field of the invention The inventionrelates to knitting machines and more particularly is directed tomultiple feed striping boxes such as used on circular knitting machinesand periodically operated by mechanisms of such machines to moveselected yarns into knitting and non-knitting positions.

(2) Description of the prior art The invention of the presentapplication is an improvement upon the striping box constructions of US.Pat. No. 2,543,121 for Knitting Machine and US. Pat. No. 2,549,701 forApparatus for Knitted Striped Fabric and the aforementioned patentapplication for Striping Box for Knitting Machine.

Striping boxes such as disclosed in the said United States patents andpatent application include a plurality of fingers which move selectedyarns into and out of yarn feeding positions, the positions of thefingers being determined according to the operation of actuating drums.In this way color changes and other yarn changes in a fabric beingknitted can be conveniently made according to a predetermined design.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with the invention the tootheddrum of a striping box is provided with uniquely constructedfinger-actuating jacks, each of said jacks being provided with a recessbetween legs extending at right angles to one another. The jacks areheld in the striping box drum by a spring which is located in an annulargroove of the drum and extends through the recesses between the legs ofthe jacks such that the legs may be pivoted about the spring into oneposition with one leg projecting from the drum teeth on one side of thespring or into another position with the other leg projecting from thedrum teeth on the other side of the spring. Other recesses provided inlegs of the jacks to receive the spring define additional positions forthe jacks with one or the other of the legs projecting from the drum.

It is an object of the invention to avoid the necessity of ever having aremove a finger-actuating jack from a striping box drum in order toredefine the position of the jack in the drum.

It is another object of the invention to provide a very simplyconstructed finger-actuating jack capable of being readily disposed inany one of various positions in a striping box drum such that it may beused to actuate any yarn carrying finger of the striping box.

It is still another object of the invention to minimize the timerequired to complete a readjustment of the striping box drum jacks suchas may be required when it becomes necessary to change the operationalsequence of yarn carrying fingers.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparentduring a reading of the specification taken in connection with theaccompanying drawings.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a fragmentary top plan viewshowing the striping box of the invention on a circular knittingmachine.

FIG. 2 is an elevational view of the striping box of FIG. 1 taken fromthe inside of the circular knitting machine.

FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic cross sectional view on the plane of the line3-3 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is an elevational view of the striping box of FIG. 1 taken fromthe outside of the circular knitting machine.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged exploded view showing portions of the striping boxof FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 is a cross sectional view of the drum of the striping box.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken on the plane of the line 77 of FIG. 6.

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary sectional view showing a finger-actuating jackin one position between drum teeth.

FIG. 9 is a fragmentary sectional View showing the jack of FIG. 8 in asecond position between the drum teeth.

FIG. 10 is a fragmentary sectional view showing the jack in the processof being pivoted about the jack retaining spring.

FIG. 11 is a fragmentary sectional view showing the jack in a thirdposition between the drum teeth.

FIG. 12 is a fragmentary sectional view showing the jack in a fourthposition between the drum teeth.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to the drawings,reference character 10 designates one of a plurality of striping boxesmounted on a stationary carrier ring 12. The striping box 10 con tainsfour striping fingers or yarn carriers 14, '16, 18 and 20, such fingersbeing of conventional construction and containing apertures throughwhich extend yarns 22, 24, 26 and 28, respectively, from cones on a yarnstand (not shown).

The striping fingers are pivotally mounted on rod 30 between checkplates 32 and 34, and are each movable between an upper inoperativeposition and a lower operative position. When a selected finger such asfinger 18 is in its lower operative position, the yarn 26 carriedthereby is operatively engageable with a needle 36 whereby the yarn maybe knitted into a fabric 35. Movement of the striping fingers from theirinoperative to their operative positions determine which striping yarnsare incorporated into the fabric. Since the fingers may carrydifferently colored yarns or yarn of dilferent textures, various stripedeffects can be obtained by selectively operating the striping fingers ofthe striping boxes which may be positioned about a machine.

Each striping box contains an inner rotatable drum 38 mounted on a shaft40 having one end affixed to an operating lever 42 as by set screw 44.The drum 38 includes a midline annular groove 46 and like teeth 48 and50, respectively, on opposite sides of the groove. L-shaped jacks 52 aremounted in selected spaces between the teeth of drum 38 to actuate thestriping fingers 14, 16, 18 and 20. Such jacks are held in the drum by aspring 54 which registers with the groove 46 and engages the jacks inone of recesses 56, 57 or 58 formed in the jacks. Recesses 56 and 58 arecorrespondingly located in identical legs 60 and 62, respectively, ofthe jacks, and the recess 57 is located between the legs as shown inFIGS. 8 through 12. The jacks 52 may be disposed with the spring 54 inrecess 56 to cause leg 62 to project from the drum in position A (FIG.8) or the jack may be disposed with the spring in recess 57 such thatthe leg 62 projects from the drum teeth in position B (FIG. 9). Thejacks may also be disposed with spring 54 in recess 57 and leg 60projecting from the drum teeth in position C (FIG. 11). In addition thejacks may be disposed with the spring in recess 58 and the leg 60projecting from the drum teeth in position D (FIG. 12). In each of thefour positions, the projecting leg of a jack is disposed to actuate adifferent striping finger.

Each finger has connected thereto a spring 64 normally urging the reararm of the finger downwardly and the yarn carrying end of the fingerupwardly. The rear arm of a finger, if not engaged by a jack 52, restsupon the surface of the drum teeth and the yarn carrying end of thefinger is in its inoperative position. The drum may, however, be movedto bring a jack into a position under the end of the rear arm and socause elevation of the rear arm and a consequent depression of theforward part of the finger, whereby the finger is brought into itsoperative position (see finger 18 in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3).

The striping box is operated by an actuator 66 which is responsive tocamming mechanism (not shown) of the type described for example in US.Pat. No. 2,543,121 mentioned hereinbefore. Actuator 66 includes push rod68 Which acts on one end of lever 42 at 70, the other end 74 of thelever being engageable with a plunger 76 slidably mounted in member 78and biased against lever 42 by a spring 80. Spring 80, acting throughlever 42, urges the push rod 68 to a position wherein flange 82 on thelever engages surface 84 on member 78, and the spring is effective toreturn the lever to such stop engaging position after actuation of thelever by push rod 68.

Drum 38 is operatively connected to a uni-directional roller clutchcomprising race 86 affixed in the drum, and rollers 88. The shaft 40directly engages the rollers 88 and also forms part of the clutch.Whenever lever 42 is actuated by push rod 68, shaft 40 which is affixedto the lever 42 turns a fraction of a revolution and causes the clutchrollers 88 to bind in the race 86 such that the drum is immediatelyforced to turn with the shaft. As shown the drum 38 includes a number ofdetents 90 which project from one end surface of the drum, such detentsbeing biased outwardly by springs 92 held in the drum by screws 94. Aplurality of recesses 96 equal in number to the number of pairs ofaligned teeth in the drum 38 are provided in check plate 34 to receivethe detents 98 and cause the drum when actuated by lever 42 actingthrough shaft 40 to move into a precise position which is defined byengagement of detents 90 in recesses 96 and wherein a pair of slotsbetween adjacent teeth 48 and 50 and any jack therein is disposeddirectly under the extreme end of the rear part of a striping fingersuch that the finger is moved into its operative position. After thedrum 38 is positioned by the shaft 40, the lever 42 is returned to itsstop engaging position by spring 88 and the shaft turns with the leverbut without moving the drum which maintains a fixed position wherein thedetents 90 register in recesses 96. When the drum is rotated to remove ajack from under a finger, the finger is moved into its inoperativeposition by attached spring 64. As may be seen in FIG. 7 the shaft 48 issupported for rotation relative to the drum 38 on a ball bearing 98mounted in a thrust washer 100 which is affixed in the drum. C-ring 102supports the shaft 40 against longitudinal movement in one direction andthe lever 42 prevents longitudinal movement of the shaft in the otherdirection.

Although striping box 10 has been described as having striping fingers14, 16, 18 and 20 movable between an upper inoperative position and alower operative position, it should be appreciated that the striping boxconstruction described is not the only possible construction and that inanother contruction the striping fingers might, for example, be springbiased toward a lower inoperative position and be subject to actuationby jacks of the striper drum into an upper operative position.

Jacks 52 are located in particular slots of the drum and in particularlocations within the slots to provide for operation of the stripinglevers in a predetermined sequence. As noted hereinbefore, the jacks 52may be disposed with leg 62 in position A or in position B, and thejacks may also be disposed with leg 60 in position C or position D. Thejacks may be slid under the spring 54 between positions A and B orbetween positions C and D, and may be pivoted (FIG. 10) about the spring54 between positions B and C. The jack for any particular pair of slotsof the drum may therefore readily be positioned to operate any one ofthe striping fingers 14, 16, 18 or 20, and it is unnecessary to remove ajack from the drum to change its position from any one of the fourpositions mentioned to any other of such positions. It will of course beunderstood that more than four finger-actuating positions might beprovided for in a somewhat wider drum than shown by utilizing jackshaving longer legs than indicated and having more than one recess ineach leg for the spring 54.

While the invention has been described in its preferred form, it is tobe understood that the words which have been used are words ofdescription rather than of limitation, and that changes within thepurview of the appended claim may be made without departing from thetrue scope and spirit of the invention.

Having thus set forth the nature of this invention, what is claimedherein is:

1. In a striping box for circular knitting machines, a plurality ofyarn-carrying fingers movable between inoperative and operativepositions, a rotatable toothed drum with an annular groove in thetoothed surface of the drum, a jack for selectively actuating thefingers upon rotation of the drum disposed between teeth of the drum andhaving a pair of legs, each of which extends at a right angle withrespect to the other and which are substantially equal in length, thejack being recessed between said legs, a spring in the annular groove ofthe drum and the recess between said legs for holding the jack in thedrum and about which the jack may be pivoted to project one leg out fromthe drum teeth into a finger actuating position on one side of thespring or the other leg out from the drum teeth into a finger actuatingposition on the other side of the spring, each leg of the jack includinga recess for engagement by the spring and such recesses beingcorrespondingly located in the legs.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,943,469 7/1960 Sirmay et al.66-156 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,128,713 10/1968 Great Britain 66-138 1,164,4519/1969 Great Britain 66-138 ROBERT R. MACKEY, Primary Examiner US. Cl.X.R. 66-156; 139-333

